Cost of Viking Excursions

[donaldsc]

I have looked at the free excursions on a Viking Caribbean cruise and most of them are bus trips which look totally worthless.  I have been trying to find out the cost of the optional excursions and I can't find it anywhere on the Viking site.  Am I missing anything.

 

Also, the cruise info does not show the port times.  Every other cruise line WEB site shows the port times.  Again - am I missing something.

 

DON

[JeriGail]

45 minutes ago, donaldsc said:

I have looked at the free excursions on a Viking Caribbean cruise and most of them are bus trips which look totally worthless.  I have been trying to find out the cost of the optional excursions and I can't find it anywhere on the Viking site.  Am I missing anything.

 

Also, the cruise info does not show the port times.  Every other cruise line WEB site shows the port times.  Again - am I missing something.

 

DON

The cost of the optional excursions won't be available until you can book the excursions.  Excursions on our TA cruise from Barcelona to San Juan ranged from $50 - $140/person.  Port arrival and departure times will be shown on your guest statement after you book a cruise.  Our port times were almost all 8 - 6.  

[CCWineLover]

1 hour ago, donaldsc said:

I have looked at the free excursions on a Viking Caribbean cruise and most of them are bus trips which look totally worthless.  I have been trying to find out the cost of the optional excursions and I can't find it anywhere on the Viking site.  Am I missing anything.

 

Also, the cruise info does not show the port times.  Every other cruise line WEB site shows the port times.  Again - am I missing something.

 

DON

Don - if they offer it, and likely they might, a couple great excursions to take IMHO are:

- The included walking tour in San Juan around Old Town - one of the best.

- The sugar cane train ride in St. Kitts - quite an experience!

- The Baths at Vigin Gorda - wonderful day

- Photography tour in Barbados with a camera professional!

[Twitchly]

After you book a cruise, you can go into My Viking Journey (app or website) and go to the calendar section. That will show you arrivals and departures for each day. For our upcoming Mediterranean cruise, they vary quite a bit. 
 

Our cruise leaves in mid-January; our excursion choices (with prices) just showed up yesterday. That’s later than in pre-Covid times. There are also far fewer options than we had on a previous (pre-Covid) cruise, but maybe more will be added as time goes by? 
 

On this cruise, excursions run between $50 and $160 per person. We usually take a mix between included and extra; there are usually some included walking tours, and we tend to enjoy those more than the “panoramic” bus tours.

 

My Viking Journey website: https://www.viking.com/myjourney/

 

 

Edited November 11, 2021 by Twitchly

[Heidi13]

3 hours ago, donaldsc said:

I have looked at the free excursions on a Viking Caribbean cruise and most of them are bus trips which look totally worthless.  I have been trying to find out the cost of the optional excursions and I can't find it anywhere on the Viking site.  Am I missing anything.

 

Also, the cruise info does not show the port times.  Every other cruise line WEB site shows the port times.  Again - am I missing something.

 

DON

 

Don - Welcome to the Viking Board. As a private company that is not a member of CLIA, Viking do not follow the norms of the mainstream industry. However, once aboard, the experience is excellent.

 

In most ports the included shore-ex is either a walking tour or bus tour, providing an overview. Most are of 1 to 3 hr duration. The website does not provide arrival and departure times and for shore-ex provides a selection of optional tours. Some or all, may be provided depending on the time in port. You may also see additional tours available.

 

If interested in a cruise, you can make a temporary booking, without paying a deposit. They will send you a Guest Statement, which includes the detailed itinerary, including arr/dep times. The list of Shore-ex is normally released about 100 - 120 days before the cruise (pre-COVID). Lately, it can be as little as a few weeks before the cruise, as many vendors are out of business.

 

[Peregrina651]

2 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

Lately, it can be as little as a few weeks before the cruise, as many vendors are out of business.

 

And those that are in business are having trouble staffing up. Guides and drivers had to find employment elsewhere and may not be in a position to return to tourism without the guarantee of a full-time position. Getting new guides may mean training and licensing, which is not an overnight process.

 

Travel at this time calls for a lot of patience, especially in the cruise industry. We might be ready cruise again and the cruise lines may be ready to have us on board  but the rest of the pieces are not falling into place as quickly.

 

One way to get a bit of a handle on prices is to seek old pricing information from folks who did the ports you are interested in pre-Covid. A lot of people here are super-organized and save everything -- and are happy to share. The prices definitely won't be the same in the future--but they certainly won't be any lower. I would start a new thread (so your follow up question does not get buried) asking if anyone has 2019-2020 shorex prices for the Caribbean. In the body of the first post be sure to name all of the ports you are interested in.

 

 

[donaldsc]

I have my TA working on this cruise. Between her and your suggestions, I should be able to figure it out.  Thanks a bunch.

 

DON

[TayanaLorna]

15 hours ago, donaldsc said:

I have looked at the free excursions on a Viking Caribbean cruise and most of them are bus trips which look totally worthless.  I have been trying to find out the cost of the optional excursions and I can't find it anywhere on the Viking site.  Am I missing anything.

 

Also, the cruise info does not show the port times.  Every other cruise line WEB site shows the port times.  Again - am I missing something.

 

DON

If you have already booked the cruise, you will have a 6 page Guest Statement outlining your cruise costs, payments, itinerary etc.  That is where you will find the port times and whether the ship will dock or anchor.

 

Cost of optional excursions have only been available once they are posted to your My Viking Journey prior to being available to book.  Other then that, find a Roll Call sailing before yours and ask there.  I have found optional excursions to cost anywhere between $49 to $399 depending on how long and the involvement.

[JessM66]

I am on the West Indies explorer over Xmas and New Year. The excursions are hellishly expensive, absolutely crazy price for what you get, really disappointed, just hope we will be able to do our own thing.

 

 

[Cienfuegos]

The train trip on St Kitts is indeed an experience. Double deck narrow gauge railway cars. Spiral staircase to the upper level.

 

Add in delightful 150 proof rum, and plenty of it. Just try to navigate  down the spiral staircase as the train sways and shakes.

 

The train ride is often sold in conjunction with a catamaran ride around the island.

[CCWineLover]

6 hours ago, Cienfuegos said:

The train trip on St Kitts is indeed an experience. Double deck narrow gauge railway cars. Spiral staircase to the upper level.

 

Add in delightful 150 proof rum, and plenty of it. Just try to navigate  down the spiral staircase as the train sways and shakes.

 

The train ride is often sold in conjunction with a catamaran ride around the island.

Agreed!  Don't miss it!  Well worth it.

[Mich3554]

When I scheduled our excursions from Athens to Buenos Aires (back to back, all done on one itinerary) we chose a mixture of included and optional.  Our total excursion cost for those 37 days was $1900, and we chose a few of the more expensive ones too.  The only one that didn’t get added was Rome, and this was not released until right before we boarded.  That excursion was Rome and the Coliseum, was 10.5 hours and included lunch. It was $199 pp.  

 

IME, some of the included ones are well worth it.  These it really depends on your tour guide.  

[Peregrina651]

On 11/13/2021 at 2:25 PM, JessM66 said:

I am on the West Indies explorer over Xmas and New Year. The excursions are hellishly expensive, absolutely crazy price for what you get, really disappointed, just hope we will be able to do our own thing.

 

 

 

Are Viking's prices that much higher than what it would cost were you to book your own tours? I know that prices in Iceland this summer where higher than what I had paid for 2020 bookings. I expect that it is the same no matter where you go.

 

It is a sellers market -- and the tour companies are the sellers, not the cruise line. The tourism industry was hard hit by Covid. Those previously employed in the industry had to find employment elsewhere and may not be returning. New/novice guides and drivers cannot be trained overnight. There is not much Viking can do if the providers have raised their prices.

 

[duquephart]

6 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

Are Viking's prices that much higher than what it would cost were you to book your own tours? I know that prices in Iceland this summer where higher than what I had paid for 2020 bookings. I expect that it is the same no matter where you go.

 

It is a sellers market -- and the tour companies are the sellers, not the cruise line. The tourism industry was hard hit by Covid. Those previously employed in the industry had to find employment elsewhere and may not be returning. New/novice guides and drivers cannot be trained overnight. There is not much Viking can do if the providers have raised their prices.

 

 

Except, of course, to increase their "middleman" markup.

[Heartgrove]

Cruise lines ALWAYS make money on what passengers pay for excursions.

[donaldsc]

1 hour ago, Heartgrove said:

Cruise lines ALWAYS make money on what passengers pay for excursions.

 

Cruise companies and also tour consolidators such as Viator either mark up the cost of excursions or they charge almost the same as an independent excursion and the tour company has to give some of the money back to the cruise line or to Viator.  I guess that most of us know that.  This is the reason the I try to do independent tours booked directly with the tour company whenever I can.  

 

DON

[lackcreativity]

1 hour ago, Heartgrove said:

Cruise lines ALWAYS make money on what passengers pay for excursions.

Not to be snippy, but isn't making money why a business exists?

 

Ships excursions also provide a convenience factor that is of value to some, and with Viking there are always the no extra cost Included Excursions, which you may choose to do. We usually select a mix of both, and have been pleased with almost every one over three cruises (all pre-covid).

[Heartgrove]

1 hour ago, lackcreativity said:

Not to be snippy, but isn't making money why a business exists?

 

Ships excursions also provide a convenience factor that is of value to some, and with Viking there are always the no extra cost Included Excursions, which you may choose to do. We usually select a mix of both, and have been pleased with almost every one over three cruises (all pre-covid).

 

I  don't dispute the fact that they are in business to make money. But does Viking charge more to help fund the included excursions? We also do a combination of cruise line excursions and self-guided excursions. In fact we have a cruise in three weeks with three ports and we are using the cruise line excursions in all three ports. The three are very reasonable priced including a lunch and six-plus hours in length. Price for each is $60.00-$80.00 pp.

 

On our Viking cruise this past Summer, the excursion to the Husavik geobaths was originally $219.00 pp +/-  (I can't recall the exact price) for the first three cruises but raised to $319.00 ($100.00 increase!) for our cruise which was the fourth one. No change in itinerary.

[Heidi13]

4 hours ago, Heartgrove said:

Cruise lines ALWAYS make money on what passengers pay for excursions.

 

In addition to normal profit margins, you are also paying for risk mitigation. If on a ship shore-ex that is delayed, the ship waits, or the cruise line get you to the next port.

 

When departure is delayed, costs increase - fuel for sure, but also pilots, tugs, line handlers, berthin fees, etc. Therefore part of the ship shore-ex mark-up helps to offset these additional costs.

[Mich3554]

9 hours ago, Heartgrove said:

 

I  don't dispute the fact that they are in business to make money. But does Viking charge more to help fund the included excursions? We also do a combination of cruise line excursions and self-guided excursions. In fact we have a cruise in three weeks with three ports and we are using the cruise line excursions in all three ports. The three are very reasonable priced including a lunch and six-plus hours in length. Price for each is $60.00-$80.00 pp.

 

On our Viking cruise this past Summer, the excursion to the Husavik geobaths was originally $219.00 pp +/-  (I can't recall the exact price) for the first three cruises but raised to $319.00 ($100.00 increase!) for our cruise which was the fourth one. No change in itinerary.

Yesterday, we were in Montserrat and I was talking to the tour guide on our excursion.  She told me that many of the attractions have raised their prices considerably just recently.  So this can likely account for the increased prices for excursions.  I imagine that this has happened all across Europe.

[Mich3554]

8 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

 

In addition to normal profit margins, you are also paying for risk mitigation. If on a ship shore-ex that is delayed, the ship waits, or the cruise line get you to the next port.

 

When departure is delayed, costs increase - fuel for sure, but also pilots, tugs, line handlers, berthin fees, etc. Therefore part of the ship shore-ex mark-up helps to offset these additional costs.

This is important.  This trip, 3 times our excursion has returned after we were supposed to leave.  I suspect that today’s excursion will add to this.  We have a 5 hour excursion and are due back at the same time we are supposed to leave.

 

[Heartgrove]

2 hours ago, Mich3554 said:

Yesterday, we were in Montserrat and I was talking to the tour guide on our excursion.  She told me that many of the attractions have raised their prices considerably just recently.  So this can likely account for the increased prices for excursions.  I imagine that this has happened all across Europe.

 

The point that I was making was initially there were only four cruises by Viking for Iceland. Repeatedly the first three cruises ( June 26, July 3, and July 10) would be treated differently than our July 17 cruise. It seemed to be poorly managed by Viking management. I won't get into the decision to finally open excursions for our week's cruise along with the Malta, etc. markets' cruises 4,000+ passengers at the same time - which crashed their website! 

 

There wasn't any problem with the ship or crew once aboard! My example of raising the price for that one excursion typified how our cruise was managed. Viking initially only planned to offer four cruises. Adding the additional ship and 15 other cruises came weeks later. Planning four cruises while negotiating with vendors why would you not negotiate for the four cruises to be alike than just do three and play catchup with the fourth? Somebody blew signing contracts for four weeks with that vendor and our week's passengers suffered for it.

 

 

[Heartgrove]

3 hours ago, Mich3554 said:

This is important.  This trip, 3 times our excursion has returned after we were supposed to leave.  I suspect that today’s excursion will add to this.  We have a 5 hour excursion and are due back at the same time we are supposed to leave.

 

 

The cruise industry is not the only business that does risk mitigation. All businesses hope they don't have additional costs but it is the nature of the beast. Were the excursion delays unexpected or just a poor case of scheduling? Hopefully being a privately held business Viking does have business departments. The Operations Department should be able to chargeback the Shorex Department for the delay's incurred cost.

 

 

[lackcreativity]

9 hours ago, Heartgrove said:

 

The point that I was making was initially there were only four cruises by Viking for Iceland. Repeatedly the first three cruises ( June 26, July 3, and July 10) would be treated differently than our July 17 cruise. It seemed to be poorly managed by Viking management. I won't get into the decision to finally open excursions for our week's cruise along with the Malta, etc. markets' cruises 4,000+ passengers at the same time - which crashed their website! 

 

There wasn't any problem with the ship or crew once aboard! My example of raising the price for that one excursion typified how our cruise was managed. Viking initially only planned to offer four cruises. Adding the additional ship and 15 other cruises came weeks later. Planning four cruises while negotiating with vendors why would you not negotiate for the four cruises to be alike than just do three and play catchup with the fourth? Somebody blew signing contracts for four weeks with that vendor and our week's passengers suffered for it.

 

 

So much right now is flying by the seat of their pants for cruise companies. Every time they try to plan something, some new issue crops up. Requirements for each country ( and sometime for different ports in the same country) seem to change with regularity. Smaller groups for excursions to help with social distancing would likely raise prices on those excursions. If the vendors running the excursions were required to change significantly the conditions of the tours, they may have increased the price they were charging Viking. If a contracted vendor withdrew (say because of staff illness, or the firm folded) a new provider may have been more expensive.

 

We are still a long way from "normal". Patience when traveling is always useful, but never more than during an ongoing pandemic.

 

 

[Heartgrove]

32 minutes ago, lackcreativity said:

So much right now is flying by the seat of their pants for cruise companies. Every time they try to plan something, some new issue crops up. Requirements for each country ( and sometime for different ports in the same country) seem to change with regularity. Smaller groups for excursions to help with social distancing would likely raise prices on those excursions. If the vendors running the excursions were required to change significantly the conditions of the tours, they may have increased the price they were charging Viking. If a contracted vendor withdrew (say because of staff illness, or the firm folded) a new provider may have been more expensive.

 

We are still a long way from "normal". Patience when traveling is always useful, but never more than during an ongoing pandemic.

 

 

 

After receiving the pre-Thanksgiving sale flyer from Viking Ocean, I actually thought of trying Viking again. The prices are attractive for those who are previous customers. It is a good product for the most part. But then I read through some of the current complaints about sailing with VO on this forum - and they are the same from five months ago! No transparency is the most frequent. Plus tellus@viking.com is a myth.

 

Once again my point in posting is that there wasn't any difference between the four original cruises. Somehow our cruise was treated as if it was the neglected step-child. I even posted a comment on FB back then before the cruise while the mess was continuing - which amazingly prompted a phone call to me from a Viking representative. It truly is disheartening to read that it still continues. Reading other cruise line forums on CC, it seems that other companies are successfully pleasing their customers.